"String theory. You wouldn't understand."

The Hurt Locker won big tonight, taking home six Oscars, including Best Picture, Director, and Original Screenplay. Kathryn Bigelow became the first woman to win Directing honors, and it was well-deserved. Also, seven of my nine predictions were correct, and the two I got wrong–Adapted and Original Screenplay–were both surprises. All in all, I say kudos to the Academy for not fucking up and giving Avatar the top prize. My only qualm is that Inglorious Basterds didn’t win for its screenplay, but at least they gave it to Locker. Full results after the jump. Continue reading →

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“Sometimes awful things have their own kind of beauty.” This line, spoken by a male prostitute in Tom Ford’s A Single Man, is perhaps the most poignant and encapsulating of the entire film. The man, named Carlos, says it to George Falconer (Oscar nominee Colin Firth), an English professor at a small college in 1960s Los Angeles trying, as he says to himself in the mirror at the beginning of the movie, to “just make it through the goddamned day.” His partner of the last sixteen years, Jim, has died in a car crash, and George is far from over it. He drifts in and out of the present, reminded of his lover by every little thing, and spends much of the one day over which A Single Man takes place planning to join him again.

The first thing you’ll notice is Firth’s commanding presence, of which more later. The second is the aesthetic:first-time filmmaker Tom Ford(who wrote, directed, and produced) seems in love with his setting, and clearly took great pains to portray it just so. His visual sense lends an air of unreality to the film that matches George’s mood. Events sometimes appear to be flashbacks even when they aren’t, and flashbacks appear to be happening in the present. This sometimes leaves us at sea in terms of what we’re looking at, thus leaving us in the same boat as George. Continue reading →

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Have you ever wondered where you can see the short films that get nominated for The Oscars? Well, you can stop, because starting Friday, February 19th, L.A.’s Nuart Theatre will be screening all of this year’s Oscar-nominated short films for two weeks. Now you can finally disagree with the Academy’s short film choices and complain that they only give Oscars to “safe” short films. Those snobs!

L.A. isn’t the only city getting these films, but the official website, which says “full website launches February 4th,” still hasn’t launched. So, I can only give you the list of Landmark Theatres that will be screening these films. Continue reading →

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AMC Theatres will be continuing their yearly trend of screening every film nominated for Best Picture at the Academy Awards, with one notable change. The event, which is normally a day-long affair, will now take place on consecutive Saturdays (February 27th and March 6th) to accommodate all 10 nominees (Avatar, The Blind Side, District 9, An Education, The Hurt Locker, Inglorious Basterds, Precious, A Serious Man, Up, Up in the Air).

The schedule hasn’t been fully announced yet. The showcase kicks off February 27th with Avatar in 3D, and AMC has a poll up to decide which four films to follow it with. Note that the second Saturday, March 6th, is the day before the Oscars. Continue reading →

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Jeff Bridges shines, sings, and pukes as Bad Blake in Crazy Heart, the film that will win him his first Oscar. I saw the film a bit later than I would have liked to, but was not disappointed. The only films from 2009 I enjoyed more were Inglorious Basterds and The Hurt Locker, which are now Best Picture and Director contenders at the 82nd Academy Awards. (This film, unfortunately, is not, and I’ll go on the record in saying it’s been snubbed, especially considering The Blind Side somehow got a nod.) Set against the evening redness of the American Southwest, the movie takes us through the bowling alleys, motels, and bars that make up Bad’s life and eventually lead him to Jean Craddock (Maggie Gyllenhaal), a journalist who makes him realize he’s after more than just the next bottle of McClure’s Whiskey. Continue reading →

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Nominations for the 82nd Academy Awards officially came out today, with few surprises (except, perhaps, for The Blind Side‘s Best Picture nomination–what’s with that?). Come Oscar night, these are the films to bet on.

I realize it wasn’t nominated, but damnit, it should have been. The best of George Clooney’s three movies this year, Fantastic Mr. Fox impressed me far more than I expected it to. Wes Anderson adapted the Roald Dahl book into a funny, intelligent film with exceptionally smart dialogue and strange, memorable characters. Even so, the Oscar will go to Up in the Air, Jason Reitman’s good-but-not-great film that owes its success more to its performances than its screenplay. The real-life testimonies from men and women who have actually lost their jobs go on for too long, and they make Air‘s message obvious. That won’t stop it from winning, though. Fox also has zero chance at Best Animated Feature, which will go to Up. Better luck next year, Wes. Continue reading →